Late Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic rift successions in SW China: Implication for the Yangtze Block–North Australia–Northwest Laurentia connection in the Columbia supercontinent
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Thermal subsidence
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Carbonate platform
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Abstract The Australia-Laurentia connection in the Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic supercontinent Nuna is thought to have initiated by ca. 1.6 Ga when both continents were locked in a proto-SWEAT (southwestern U.S.–East Antarctic) configuration. However, the longevity of that configuration is poorly constrained. Here, we present a new high-quality paleomagnetic pole from the ca. 1.3 Ga Derim Derim sills of northern Australia that suggests Australia and Laurentia were in the same configuration at that time. This new paleopole also supports a connection between Australia and North China and, in conjunction with previously reported data from all continents, indicates that the breakup of Nuna largely occurred between ca. 1.3 and 1.2 Ga.
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The positions of Laurentia and other landmasses in the Precambrian supercontinent of Rodinia are controversial. Although geological and isotopic data support an East Antarctic fit with western Laurentia, alternative reconstructions favor the juxtaposition of Australia, Siberia, or South China. New geologic, age, and isotopic data provide a positive test of the juxtaposition with East Antarctica: Neodymium isotopes of Neoproterozoic rift-margin strata are similar; hafnium isotopes of approximately 1.4-billion-year-old Antarctic-margin detrital zircons match those in Laurentian granites of similar age; and a glacial clast of A-type granite has a uraniun-lead zircon age of approximately 1440 million years, an epsilon-hafnium initial value of +7, and an epsilon-neodymium initial value of +4. These tracers indicate the presence of granites in East Antarctica having the same age, geochemical properties, and isotopic signatures as the distinctive granites in Laurentia.
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ABSTRACT Antarctica has been known as the “keypiece” of the Gondwana supercontinent since publication of Du Toit's 1937 classic book Our Wandering Continents . It is also important to reconstruction of the early Neoproterozoic supercontinent Rodinia. Laurentia, with its circumferential late Precambrian rifted margins, can be regarded as the ‘keypiece’ of Rodinia. The S outh w est US– E ast A n t arctica (SWEAT) hypothesis suggested former juxtaposition of the Pacific margins of Laurentia and East Antarctica. Several new lines of evidence support this hypothesis in a revised form, but must be reconciled with opening of the Pacific Ocean basin predating amalgamation, not only of Gondwana, but even of today's East Antarctic craton. The sequence of events is envisaged to have been: (1) formation prior to 1·6 Ga of a craton, including Laurentia and the Mawson craton, that extended from South Australia along the present Transantarctic margin to the Shackleton Range; (2) suturing of southernmost Laurentia to the Kalahari craton along the Grenville, Namaqua–Natal–Maud orogenic belt ca. 1·0 Ga; (3) rifting of the East Antarctic margin (Mawson craton) from western Laurentia ca. 0·7 Ga; (4) pan-African suturing of the Mawson craton to southernmost Laurentia as Gondwana amalgamated, forming the ephemeral Pannotia supercontinent; and (5) end-Precambrian separation of Laurentia as Iapetus opened.
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Geosphere, December 2007, v. 3, p. 511-526, doi: 10.1130/GES00091.1. Animation 3 - QuickTime movie of the diachronous assembly and breakup of Rodinia from 1100 Ma to 530 Ma. Positions of continental fragments (white) relative to Laurentia (multi-colored) at key time slices (e.g., 1100 Ma, 1000 Ma, 900 Ma, 700 Ma, 550 Ma) based on the IGCP 440 reconstruction of the Rodinia supercontinent, as summarized in Li et al. (2007 and references therein). Development of Laurentia during this time period based on Whitmeyer and Karlstrom (2007). Early Cambrian rifting of the Precordillera micro-continent from Laurentia based on Thomas and Astini (1996). Neoproterozoic-Cambrian assembly of Gondwana following breakup of Rodinia largely based on Powell et al. (1993) and Dalziel (1997). File size is 4.9 MB.
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